Nat the Cat's Sunny Smile - Hardcover

Jez Alborough is the author and illustrator of over 45 books for children. His Eddy and the Bear trilogy (which began with the much loved Where's My Teddy in 1992) has sold nearly four and a half million copies and was made into an award winning animated television series. Duck in the Truck (published in 1999) heralded the start of another bestselling series, this time featuring the irrepressible Duck and his three friends - Frog, Goat and Sheep. There are currently nine books in the Duck series (1.2 million copies sold), including Duck's Key Where Can It Be? which won the Child magazine Best of the Year Award. In 2000 Jez created Hug - a powerful and touching book of only three words about a baby chimpanzee called Bobo who loses his Mom, chosen by Oprah Winfrey for her recommended reading list. Bobo went on to star in two more classics; Tall ( which along with Hug won the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Book Award ) and Yes. The series has sold 1.76 million copies.

PreS-K–Children follow Nat the Cat as she tries to collect her friends, Hugo Hare and Billy Goat, for a picnic. When they decline because they're in bad moods, Nat sweetly pats them on their heads and continues along, humming a song. But on her way to the meadow, she wonders, “What sort of a picnic...will it be,/with nobody there to share it with me?” Now feeling gloomy herself, Nat stops at a lake and flops on the ground, uninterested in the contents of her picnic basket. Then Hugo and Billy appear, cheerfully explaining, “after you left the grump went away,/and it's all because of your smile....” The three friends munch on biscuits and cake,and they sing “Nat the Cat's Picnic Song.” Words and music are included and may also be heard and downloaded at the author's website. Alborough's paintings, with rounded figures and spare backgrounds, feature soft colors and textures. The rhyming text is well paced, with choppy verse for the complaints and be-bop rhythms in the upbeat sections. Word choice encourages preschoolers' vocabulary development: “dingy,” “dreary,” “hamper,” “brood.”–Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VAα(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.